Until now, many presumed that likely Democratic guberatorial nominee Jay Nixon and other Democrats would make a big issue of the Medicaid-related actions of Blunt and the Republican legislature. These votes will make that tactic problematical.

The seven Democrats who stayed true to the game plan included Sens. Jeff Smith and Maida Coleman of St. Louis, progressive icon Joan Bray of University City and, ironically, conservative Democrat Frank Barnitz of rural Lake Spring. If Barnitz could stand up to the conservative tide, why couldn’t Days, Green, McKenna and the term-limited Kennedy?